Okay not going to lie, I have no idea where to start with Persona 4. This game was so much fun, and I had a blast the whole way through (for the most part). I should also point out how I'll be comparing this game to Persona5 a lot, mentioning how P4 is better than P5, and how it fails in some elements compared to P5.
Let me start with the good, and I mean GOOD. One thing that P4 succeeds better than P5 does, which is saying a lot, are the characters. The P4 cast is so lovable and I care about all of them so much (except Rise). Each one has their moments to shine and display their traits, and it gives the player this sense of living, if that makes sense. What I mean is that jumping into Persona 4's world over and over feels natural, as if you keep visiting its expressive cast, and only leaving it temporarily. Now to be fair, when I mean the cast in Persona 4, I mean the Investigation Team. I found the extra social links outside of the team to be kinda bland. Compared to Persona 5's social links, they just felt more compelling than P4's. Another side note, I want to compare Dojima and Sojiro, because I tried so hard to like Dojima, and he has his moments, yes. But come on, you can't beat the main man Sojiro's smooth-like-butter voice and his "Ah, you're back." Also, before I change the subject, best girl is Naoto, best man is Kanji, and Nanako trumps everyone and everything (THAT part with Nanako though... jeez man).
Another part of Persona 4 I find great, and is better than Persona 5, is it's humor. There are so many parts where the main cast just hangs out, having a blast, and like I said before, you feel like you are there with them, at the beach or going skiing. These parts don't need to be in the game at all, as it has nothing to do with the story, but the writers when out of their way to put these scenes in, and I really appreciate it. These scenes, along with so many other parts, left me dying of laughter, and I really appreciated it. Now again, to be fair, I feel like P4 automatically is funnier than P5 simply because of how different the cast is. P5 has more of a mature tone in it's story. P4 still has its mature parts in the story, specifically the sixth dungeon especially, but the humor in the game doesn't really make it better or worse. P4's humor makes it sticks out, which is what all games should strive to do.
Okay so this is when I was going to talk about the story of P4, but this is already getting crazy long, so I'll try to condence this LOL. Anyways, P4's story was excelltent. Now as much fun I had with P4's story, since I played P5 beforehand, I will say, without spoiling anything, that there are parellels with different story bits. However, outside of the similar story beats between P4 and P5, it's still very enjoyable, and is such a wild ride.
FINALLY, THE MUSIC OMG. There are soooooo many bops that P4's soundtrack constantly keeps getting stuck in my head. Some notable ones are Shadow World, Heartbeat Heartbreak, Your Affection, Signs of Love, Backside of the TV, Time to Make History YEEEEEAH, I'll Face Myself, It's Show Time, Heaven, Snowflakes, and Never More. Again, I feel like since P4's music is so different from P5's, you can't really compare the two that much.
Now for the bad, which aren't too bad, just some complaints I had. First, the dungeons were uninspired and boring. Now of course there are some dungeons that are exceptions, but overall, every dungeon I just wanted to be over with. Compared to P5's palaces, my god it's like night and day. Having super intricate, in depth, story filled, great designed palaces, to P4's empty, dull, and drawn-out dungeons. To be fair, the bosses at the end were very good, so maybe they designed the dungeons to be long and drawn-out to let the player be excited about what the boss fight will be like.
Speaking of bosses, tbh, I had a hard time with some of them, as I was too underleved from playing the game naturally, which resulted in g r i n d i n g. To be fair, I only needed to grind twice, but I still felt like it was unessecary, as P5 didn't need grinding on my playthrough personally. It was tedious yes, but it was very rewarding in the end to beat the bosses I had trouble with.
OKAY NOW I'M DONE. THIS IS AN AMAZING GAME AND I LOVED MY FIRST PLAYTHROUGH SO MUCH. YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT PERSONA 3 GRIND WILL HAPPEN SOON. IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THIS IS THE END. MY GOD I POPPED OFF TOO HARD ON THIS.